The faculty association at Athabasca University has written an open letter to its Board of Governors urging them not to sign the Government of Alberta’s mandate letter. The Journal:

McCutcheon said the letter was written to make clear just how large a threat the mandate letters represent and to urge the university not to sign on.

“Doing so could set an unfortunate, if not dangerous, precedent in terms of ceding authority and autonomy of the universities more directly to the government,” McCutcheon said. “We’re hoping they’ll take our letter to heart here.”

We should take their letter to heart.

Its single most powerful sentence about the Government’s letter:

The Letter, ultimately, is best understood as an attempt to justify the unjustifiable cut to the province’s postsecondary budget, a cut so deep – and made in one of the world’s richest jurisdictions – that it must be understood primarily as political, not financial.